Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Tour Guide From The Underworld

The past few days, a couple of the TCG exclusives for Extreme Victory have been surfacing, one of which was accidental, like this one.

I give you, Tour Guide From The Underworld

One of the best artworks i've seen in a while.

Konami told us about a month ago that they are getting ready for the new exceed summoning which debuts in the TCG in August. They wanted to give the players an easy way to get the requirements to exceed summon (Having two or more monsters of the same level on your field), and this card is proof.

Its got 1000 attack and 600 defence. Thats not really important though, because i doubt you will be using it for attacking.

When this card is normal summoned, you can special summon one level 3 fiend type from your hand or deck. Its effects are negated, and it cant be used as synchro material.

This means that you summon this card, special summon a level 3 fiend, and exceed into a rank 3 monster. Thats the jist of it anyway. However, this card can special summon quite a few interesting monsters, albeit their effects will be negated. The best card i can think of is sangan. You can simply exceed into a rank 3, remove sangan from the exceed monster, and search for any card you want. And it replaces the card you used in your hand in the first place.

This card can also fetch infernity Necromancer. While its effects are negated, its a 2000 wall which when sent to the graveyard, can be brought back with Infernity Launcher for many Shenanigans. Or if you really want to, you can special summon a second copy of tour guide.

But after researching all the possible targets this card can special summon, its actually quite limited. Since it can only special summon a level 3 fiend-type, many good cards dont fit into that catagory.

Well, at least you can attack with the monster you summoned, as well as Tour guide itself.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Dodger Dragon

Hello everyone. I hope you guys, the ones who are students, have had a decent Easter Holidays. I know I haven't. For everyone else, at least the weather is getting better.

Anyway, today's card is a confirmed exclusive from Extreme Victory (Next to Absolute Powerforce, a ridiculous name for a booster set) . Konami have been observing what's going on in YCSs recently, and have seen what cards are predominant in most decks, so one of their answers is Dodger Dragon.

As the name implies, he dodges stuff.

This Dragon has a 1900 attack and 1200 defence. In the past, that Attack and defence have gone together quite often. Off the top of my head i can remember Vorse Raider, Luster Dragon and many more. Its effect however, makes it quite useful in today's meta.

This card's normal summoning cannot be negated. Your opponent cannot activate counter traps on the turn that this card is normal summoned.

This card is a huge middle finger against some of the most common trap cards out there. While cards like Bottomless Trap Hole can destroy it (Since you have to wait for it to be normal summoned, then BTH destroys it after it has been summoned successfully), many players have switched out their 2 copies for Solemn Warning. This card completely stops that and if you wish to summon more that turn, you can without worries. Not only is it good against Warning, its also good against its brother, Solemn Judgement as well as many others. It's a great starting point to the beginning of your turn, and can help you get in some really neat damage with its 1900 attack power.

But this card shines in Hopeless Dragon decks. You can summon this card and shut down their Warnings, then remove it from play to summon Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon and from there, you can summon whatever dragons you want from your hand and your opponent cannot do a thing about it. Even if you attack directly, their useless card on the field means that they can't summon Gorz.

This card however, only gets its effect when its normal summoned. While that's not a big deal in some decks, it slows down the deck it's in unless you have the resources to swarm the field using other cards. Topdecking this card is not too bad, but you would have preferred something that could possibly bait their Warning/Judgement and make them waste their life points late game. Its also a WIND type, which does not do it many favours compared to if it was a DARK or LIGHT. And after the turn this card has been summoned, its a sitting duck which does nothing else for you (Unlike Thunder King Rai-Oh), but so does Trap Stun, and many people run that.

Its going to be a Super Rare in Extreme Victory, so at least its not too hard to pull. I would have felt cheated if it was a higher rarity than that, though.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Naturia Landoise

Its friday (FUN FUN FUN FUN!) and its only a few days left until Hidden Arsenal 4 is released to the public. There are already some box openings on youtube and some people have been lucky enough to pull multiple Trishulas per box.

Anyway, the last HA4 card i will review is Naturia Landoise

Torterra from Pokémon, anyone?

This level 7 rock-type synchro monster has 2350 attack and 1600 defence. That's actually really bad, since the standard attack for a level 6-7 is around 2400-2800 attack, and this card just misses that crucial bracket. It requires an Earth tuner and one or more Earth non-tuners, which is not too difficult to accomplish, but its a little harder to make than Beast and Barkion. The effect will get better with age, but as of now, its lacking:

Which this card is face up, when your opponent activates an effect monster's effect, you can send one spell card from your hand to the graveyard to negate the effect and destroy the monster.

So, if the effect goes off, its a one-for-one. As the game becomes more effect monster orientated, this card has so many chances to make use of its effect. While its 2350 attack means monarchs and other such beaters can get over it, it can negate the monarch's effect and destroy it, or you can Bottomless a Shi en and you can use this card's effect to make sure it goes through (But its still a -1).

However, unlike its brothers Naturia Beast and Naturia Balkion, its effect is somewhat a difficult choice to use. Beast is great to lockdown opponents (especially their book of moon or forbidden lance) and you get to mill too, which is never a bad thing. Barkion lets you negate traps, which is a big part of our current meta. But with Landoise, you dont +1 no matter how you look at it. The only way to +1 is to negate a Brionac or another monster that has a cost to their effects, but whats stopping your opponent from synchro summoning Gaia Knight instead?

It also has no use when its destroyed unlike the other two. Beast and Balkion can be used to fusion summon Exterio and really lockdown your opponent. If you can get a landoise and an exterio on the field however, then you have created a difficult lockdown for your opponent. Im guessing Konami feels that negating Monster effects is somewhat more important than negating spells or traps, which is true for a lot of decks.

One way that this card might get better is if we suddenly get spell cards that do things when they are discarded. Ojamagic can get you ojamas from your deck to your hand, but now you're deck is really starting to look inconsistent.

Thats about it really. Don't get too excited if you pull this. It's probably going to be chilling in your binder for a LONG time.

Hidden Arsenal SE Promos Confirmed!

Hey people. Konami have officially announced the promo cards that you could get when you buy a Hidden Arsenal special edition. Each special edition will come with a hidden arsenal 1, 2 and 3 pack as well as one of the two promo cards:

Naturia Pineapple OR XX-Saber Emmersblade!

When Konami decide to something right, they deserve an applause. Players have been begging for an Emmersblade reprint since it hit our game as a secret rare in Absolute Powerforce a year ago. It is an essential for the deck.

Naturia Pineapple is good too. Another Secret rare from a hard-to-find set. It was intended to be abused with Naturia Bambooshoot for a quick lockdown, but never really hit off. Maybe this is the breakthrough that could put them on the competitive scene. We will find out soon enough.


Still waiting on that Pot of Duality Reprint :(

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Reborn Tengu

Hey readers. With the Extreme Victory Sneak Peek around a month away, its mandatory that I do a review of the Sneak Peek card that comes with the 5 packs you will get when you enter. And guess what, this one is actually good.

Say hello to Reborn Tengu

Mirror force me, I DARE YOU!

This Beast-Warrior type monster is a WIND attribute (boo!) but comes with a respectable 1700 attack and 600 defence. Its effect has been specifically designed by Konami themselves to synergise with the new summon mechanic: Exceed Summoning.

When this card is removed from the field, special summon one "reborn tengu" from your deck.

Right off the bat, this card replaces itself when it leaves the field. If you send it for a synchro summon, you get another one. If you attack into a Mirror force, you get another one and can attack again. If you Tribute summon it for a monarch, that's a potential 4100 points of direct damage right there.

The best part about this card is the fact that its effect is Mandatory. Like Dandylion for example, its effect goes off no matter what, which is why it can potentially be utilised for so many mechanics as stated above. It works with exceed summoning because when you remove it from your exceed monster, it special summons another from the deck. That means you get the exceed monster's effect, and a new 1700 beater to summon more exceed monsters with.

However, this card is best ran in 2s. Like Gravekeeper's spy (Which will work epicly together with this card by the way!), it is horrible to draw more than one in your opening hand since you cant special summon the tengu from your hand, only your deck. So two is the way to go.

This card also gets it's effect when its returned to the hand, so there are many synchro options with cards like Genex Ally Birdman (And Birdman becomes 1900 atk).

A deck that can really abuse this card? The medal has to go to Scraps. Summon a tengu with a scrap beast on the field, Synchro Summon a Scrap Dragon and you get a tengu to use for Scrap dragon's effect (And if you're running 3 tengu, you can get the third one now).

There is really so many combos that you can do with this card. Konami really have outdone themselves this time with this promo card. If you go to the sneak peek in may, make sure you grab a few of these before people realise how good this card is!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Naturia Ragweed

In Hidden Arsenal 4, we will be introduced to some more naturia monsters. Even though it is one of the largest archetypes in the game (Next to Worms, which is also a DT archetype), Konami insists that they don't have enough monsters already.

After looking through them, i found one that stood out, called Naturia Ragweed

Aww!

Right, down to business. Ragweed has an OK 1200 attack and a modest 2000 defence. that 2000 defence is solid enough to protect you for a turn or two. Its effect?

When your opponent activates a card that lets them draw outside the draw phase, you can send this card from the field to your graveyard to draw 2 cards.

Thats some very good draw power. The reason why im reviewing this card is because you don't need to play naturias to play this. It can be placed in any deck, and it can be sided against many meta decks. Here is a list of cards that this card works against in our current meta:

- Allure of darkness: Many DARK decks run this.
- Morphing jar: You will get to draw 7 cards (ROFL) instead of 5
- Archetype specific draw cards like destiny draw, solar recharge, cards for black feathers and Cards from the Sky (When it comes out in the summer)
- Card Trooper: Its at two now, and many decks are running this card for its milling and drawing which you can take advantage of with this card.

The problem is that a lot of decks are no longer using draw power. Searching for the cards that you want from your deck is more beneficial to deal with the current situation. Cards like Reinforcement of the army, Gateway of the six and Sangan let you search, which does not count as drawing, so you would not be able to use ragweed when they do this, which means it could become a useless card on your field

So check this card out when you open your Hidden Arsenal 4 booster box in 2 weeks time. Its probably going to be a super but i wouldn't recommend running more than 1 in your deck (Side the other two against exodia and lightsworns!)

Duelist pack 2011 opening

America gets a tin, and we get a cardboard box.

Deck Thinning: How it works and why it's so darn important.

Today i would like to write a lengthy review about one of the most important aspects of Yu-Gi-Oh!. Every deck uses it, and decks use it to win. Use it right, and you can manipulate your deck to toolbox any situation, without compromising on advantage.

The power of Deck Thinning is one of the tools avaliable to any duelist who wishes to use it in their deck. Firstly, what is it?

To thin your deck is essentially to make the deck card count smaller. To weave through the arsenal of cards in your deck to the one that you want is probably the most powerful weapon you can wield. In many decks, there are ways to thin your deck, but all decks have access to draw cards. Draw cards have been put under control by Konami's banlist in the recent years. Pot of Greed did so much for such a simple effect. If you drew it early in the game, you could really outspeed your opponent and set up much quicker. Konami released Pot of Duality in The Duelist Revolution (Which i did a review on ages ago) which is the definition of consistency as we know it today. It is one of the ways that competitive duelists (competitive as in spends lots of money on a game with the intention of winning and making a profit) dig through their deck to the card they want. While that might thin the deck by 1 card, it does not thin it enough. Some decks need to thin their deck to get access to a single card.

The most common method of doing that is Milling. Milling is the process of sending many cards from your deck to the graveyard so the cards sent can be used. Debris plants (which is not so potent anymore) uses Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter to destroy a card on the field and mill 3 cards in the hopes that they mill anything that can be special summoned with Debris Dragon. It thins their deck immensely and the player does not have to worry about drawing the monster that they would rather have milled to the graveyard.

Lightsworn is the king of deck thinning. It uses cards like Necro Guardna and Glow-Up Bulb which are milled to the graveyard so that they can be used and not drawn into. There are other ways of thinning the deck other than milling. Upstart Goblin lets you draw a card and your opponent gains 1000 life points. Some see the 1000 life as too much of a benefit to the opponent, but others see it as a way to get to the cards you want quicker. It does not matter if you have 11000 life points and your opponent has now assembled multiple beaters on the field, ready to wipe you out right there. But with draw cards, your deck needs to be as small as possible. Many competitive players, such as myself, refuse to play a deck over 40 cards. with every extra card in your deck, the chances of drawing an out to the current situation is slimmer and slimmer. Cards like Upstart Goblin and Pot of Duality are completely useless if your deck has over 40 cards. If you're playing a 41 card deck, the card you just drew with Upstart Goblin could have been in your hand already if you were playing a 40 card deck (theoretically).

Another way to thin your deck is through controlled milling (a term i just made up). That is, sending the cards to the graveyard that you want there, rather than just sending anything that you might of wanted to draw instead (monster reborn, dark hole etc.). A deck that uses this well is Frog monarchs. They use Swap frog to send treeborn frog and fishborg blaster to the graveyard from the deck. Treeborn frog special summons itself every standby phase and fishborg is a tuner which can be summoned by discarding a card while you have a water monster on the field. This allows you to synchro both into Formula synchron and draw a card, and you have not even wasted your normal summon yet! But controlled milling (or dumping) is generally more costly on resources. Foolish burial can be used in any deck, but is a -1 depending on what you send to the graveyard. Konami know how placing "send ____ from your deck to the graveyard" on a card is a powerful tool to thin your deck, and don't make many cards that can do that.

The best decks can fetch nearly any card from their deck and place it on the field immediately. Search cards like Reinforcement of the Army, Charge of the Light Brigade, Gateway to the Six, Dragon Ravine all let you fetch the monsters from the deck that you need, allowing for increased consistency and deck thinning at the same time. If you don't run a deck that uses search cards, you can use recruiters like shining angel and mystic tomato if you really wanted to. There is no reason why you shouldnt be trying to thin your deck during a duel.

Now, back to card reviews!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: The Fabled Unicore

Hello readers. As stated at the end of my last card review, today is The Fabled Kudabbi's brother/sister (Im veering towards sister, but its a unicorn so who gives a flying f***).

Here we have The Fabled Unicore

That's one evil looking unicorn.

This 4 star unicorn has an impressive 2300 attack, making it the strongest level 4 synchro out there (There's only 3 level-4 synchro monsters, so its not really worth giving a cookie to). Like its brother it is synchro summoned with one fabled tuner and one or more non-tuner monsters. And like all of the fabled archetype, it is a LIGHT attribute. Now for the effect:

While both players have the same number of cards in their hands, you can negate the effect of effect monster's effects, spell cards and trap cards while this card is face up on the field.

This effect can be incredibly annoying for your opponent. Since fableds discard alot, the critical number is 0 cards in your hand. If you can get your opponent into a topdecking situation, there is not much he can do. If you have 0 cards and he/she does too, they will have to draw a card and not use it until their next turn, otherwise it will be negated. But you can just draw and not use that card, so you are both at 1 card in hand and they will still be unable to do anything. But i can see this card being the bane of many duelists who are sick of hearing "how many cards in your hand?".

Since this monster's effect is continuous, it does not start a chain and therefore can negate counter traps, similar to cards like Royal Decree and Spell Canceller.

One way to get both players to the same number of cards in hand is morphing jar. It refreshes both players hands to 5, so thats an option (fableds run morphing jar anyway).

Thats about it, really. its a decent card and at the very least it can suicide into Brionac.

The best nordic deck i could come up with: Version 2.0

About a month ago, i posted a decklist of a nordic deck. It was a pure build (meaning nothing but nordic monsters, but there were two nimble hamsters) but i have realised that nordics work in conjunction with other non-nordic cards much better. It makes them more consistent, quicker and allows for non-nordic plays in the deck without harming the overall win condition.

Anyway, here's a revised version of the decklist, and my reasons for some of the choices:

Monsters - 19
3x Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts
3x Black Goat (Tanngnjostr)
2x White Goat (Tanngrisnir)
1x Vanadis of the Nordic Ascendant
3x Super Nimble Mega Hamster
2x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
2x Effect Veiler
1x Cyber Dragon
1x Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
1x Card Trooper

Spells - 9
1x Book of Moon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Dark Hole
1x Mind Control
1x Pot of Avarice (2 works just as well)
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Giant Trunade
1x My Body as a Shield

Traps - 12
3x Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir
2x Solemn warning (or Bottomless)
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Trap Stun
1x Seven Tools of the Bandit
2x Dimensional Prison
1x Call of the Haunted

Extra deck - 15
1x Odin, Father of the Aesir
1x Thor, Lord of the Aesir
2x Stardust dragon
1x Colossal fighter
1x Scrap dragon
2x Black rose dragon
1x Chimeratech fortress dragon
1x Brionac, dragon of the ice barrier
1x Trishula, dragon of the ice barrier
1x Mist wurm
1x ally of justice catastor
1x Scrap archfiend
1x anything you want.

Reason for Some of the Choices:
- 1 Vanadis: It's slow, it cant stand long on its own, but it allows you to synchro into any aesir, and its dumping effect is very good. So one is best.
- Gorz: Yes i am running 12 traps, but the deck needed more aggression which this card delivers
- Card Trooper: It mills, it pumps itself and you draw when it dies. Every deck should be running this.
- Cyber Dragon: Same as Gorz. It provides some aggression and its a level 5, which is not a bad thing at all.
- Dimensional prison: It gets rid of problems like stardust. This deck likes to go into Black Rose Dragon with Black Goat and Guldfaxe, so d prison is good here.
- 1 trap stun and 1 seven tools: The Descending of your aesir needs to be protected. both of these cards allow you to summon it without interruption.
- My body as a shield: Same reason as trap stun/seven tools.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: The Fabled Kudabbi

It's that day of the week again. The one where you eagerly wake up and think "The TCG Lover has posted a new card review today. I must go and check it out before getting on with my awesome life". If that's not what you're thinking, then what the heck is wrong with you?

To keep the Hidden Arsenal bandwagon cruising, todays card is The Fabled Kudabbi

Zone if he was a Unicorn!

This, along with its other level 4 brother, is a synchro monster that requires a fabled tuner and one or more non-tuner monsters. Since its level 4, you will probably just be using 2 monsters for its synchro summon. Anyway, its got a badass effect.

If you have 0 cards in your hand, this card cannot be destroyed no matter what. If you have 3 or more cards in your hand, this card is destroyed at the end phase.

The Fabled Archetype as a whole specialises in discarding the monsters in their hand to gain their effects. Some of them need to discard for their effect while on the field, like Fabled Grimro. Some make you discard while they're in the graveyard, like Fabled Kushano or Fabled Soulkius. And some activate their effect when they're sent to the graveyard, like Fabled Krus or Fabled Cerberrel. Since Discarding is the basis of the archetype, you can easily deplete your hand, but the trade off is a big field full of monsters. They swarm, and they swarm well. And this card rewards that.

This card is easy to summon in a fabled deck and its got a beefy 2200 attack. That is very high for it's level. There are many ways to summon it with fabled:

- Discard Fabled Lurrie to add Fabled Kushano back to your hand from the graveyard. Lurrie will special summon itself and then normal summon Kushano and synchro into Kudabbi.

- Discard The Fabled Cerberrel to summon any level 2 monster (Like The Fabled Nozoochee) and synchro.

The possibilities are endless. And now that you have synchro summoned Kudabbi, you will need to keep your hand at 0 at all times to keep it on the field. If your hand is 1 or 2 cards, then Kudabbi is a vanilla 2200 monster that can be taken out with ease. Remember to keep setting cards (Spells too!) and this card will stick around for a while.

A great combination is to special summon this card with Call of the Haunted. If you have no cards in your hand, you can let call of the haunted get destroyed and Kudabbi will not be destroyed by Call's effect. Oh if you didn't notice already, It can be special summoned from the graveyard with Fabled Krus.

Next up for review is The Fabled Unicore!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Genex Ally Birdman

Happy Saturday everyone!

To carry on with the theme at the moment, I’m reviewing another Hidden Arsenal 4 card. Another card which will have a huge impact on the TCG and will probably get limited come September.

Today it’s Genex Ally Birdman!

I can understand the bird part, but where's the man?

This weirdly named monster is a machine tuner and has 1400 Attack (Sangan, anyone?) and 400 Defence. It is also level 3 which is a nice level for a tuner. But its playability comes from its near-broken effect.

You can return one face up monster card you control to your hand to special summon this card. If the card returned was a WIND type monster, Birdman gains 500 ATK. If this card was summoned this way, when this card is removed from the field, it is removed from play.

Before I discuss the effect, I just want to say that every semi-decent tuner has an effect that allows it to special summon itself, or be searched with some ease. Genex Controller can be searched with Undine in Frog Monarchs, Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind is a DARK type monster that can slice your opponent’s monster’s ATK and DEF, and Glow up Bulb and Plaguespreader Zombie can special summon themselves from the graveyard.

This card is in the same league. As long as you have a monster on your field, you can use this cards effect. The reason why this card is so broken is simply because of Monarchs. After a monarch is summoned and its effect has been used, it is a vanilla 2400 beater which is susceptible to anything your opponent throws at you. Genex Ally Birdman allows you to re-use your monarch for the second time, and that can really hurt your opponent watching a single Caius remove 2 cards on their field.

Its ATK gain effect is not too shabby either. If you return a Raiza the Storm Monarch to your hand, this card becomes a 1900 beater which can be combined with Limiter removal for some real pain. While boosting it to 1900 does make it a target for bottomless, it can bait it out at the same time.

When this card is removed from the field, its removed from play. Without this drawback at the end, this card would be bannable. It means you only get one use out of it before you have to go out of your way in the duel to get it back.

Make sure you get hold of a Birdman for your deck, especially if you’re playing monarchs. You will not want to miss this!

Mara of the Nordic Alfar

It's been confirmed, there is a picture and the effect has surfaced to the public.

It has 1000 attack and 500 defence and is a tuner. It is also level 2.

If this card is used as a synchro material monster, the other materials are two nordic monsters in your hand.

Right. thats a 3 card synchro summon which is quite expensive for a start, and since its level 2, it needs 2 level 4 non-tuner nordic monsters to summon an aesir (The only one you can synchro into is Loki since its an Alfar), and all of the best non-tuner nordic monsters are level 3 and below.

Click here to see the card, and take note that it's an Ultra rare and not a Secret unlike the last exclusive (Vanadis).

Try again Konami, try again.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Naturia Exterio

Good day, chaps. Yesterday was spirit reaper, and now i want to review more cards from the next Hidden Arsenal, which if you don't know, is coming out mid april. Everyone is looking forward to the Advent of Trishula, which we all know is going to become a herpderp card for everyone. But apart from her, there are other very useful and interesting cards coming out in that set too, so you still have some good cards if you happen to buy a box and not pull the cover card.

One of those cards is Naturia Exterio.

A better Heraklinos.

Here we have a fusion monster that requires two synchro materials to summon it, a Naturia Beast and a Naturia Barkion. It hits the field with a decent 2800 Attack (But could be a little better since its level 10). It's effect is where its at though.

Whenever your opponent activates a spell or trap card, you can remove from play a card in your graveyard then send a card from the top of your deck to the graveyard to negate the spell/trap and destroy it.

So there we go, 2/3 of your opponent's deck is now obselete and they will have to use brute force to take Exterio down. Monster effects are becoming more broken by the minute, but there are few monster effects that can get exterio off the field (There is stupid **** like Judgment dragon, but thats archetype specific so it doesn't really count, right?). And if it gets destroyed, then you can just use monster reborn or call of the haunted to bring it back.

The big problem is bringing it out. There are many ways to ease the summoning of this monster but its still a lot of hassle. The 2 Easiest ways i can think of are these two:

- Naturia Cherries: Let it get destroyed and special summon 2 more. Next turn, summon a level 4 EARTH monster (Gadget or something), tune for Naturia beast then use the other Cherry to synchro into Barkion with your Beast
- Glow-Up Bulb: To do this, you need to already have a level 4 EARTH type on the field. Summon Glow-Up Bulb, Synchro into beast, Special summon Glow up bulb with it's effect and synchro it with Beast into Barkion.

With both methods, you now have a Barkion on your field and a Beast in your grave. Then use Miracle Synchro Fusion to fuse them together into Exterio. Either method only costs you 3 cards. See? That doesn't seem too difficult at all. You can combine both methods listed above into one consistent deck (It's the only deck i can think of where you can run more than one Glow-Up Bulb and people won't laugh at you).

So there we have it: It's Big, It's Beast and Barkion in one, and the card itself is FREAKIN' PURPLE.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Spirit Reaper

Happy monday duelists. Over the weekend i played in my local tournament and did not do too well. In my Locals, the first match of the tournament is essential to come first, and i had a tough matchup. He was running Light beat/shining, blinged out with warnings and dualitys. I almost triumphed but a topdecked miracle fusion saved him.

After the match ended and the win was declared to the judge, the guy next to me said "Was your opponent using The Shining? Its not a legal card yet". Frankly, I felt cheated. I did win my other 3 matches of the tournament with ease (Lightsworns still got it, folks.)

Anyway, todays card is Spirit reaper

The definition of Evil in a single card.

This little beaut has 300 attack and 200 defence. That's pretty bad, but lets have a look at the effect.

This card cannot be destroyed in battle. If this card is targeted by a spell, trap or monster effect, it is destroyed (after the card has resolved, i'll talk more about this). Lastly, if you attack directly with this card, you randomly discard one card from your opponent's hand.

Spirit reaper has always been good. It has the potential to bring your opponents deck to a standstill. If your opponent has just used Pot of Duality and you can tell that he/she is planning to make a big swarm next turn, a well timed spirit reaper can save you from an OTK. But the best part of its effect is the discard.

With the ability to discard your opponent's cards from their hand with a poke, your opponent is put at an immense pressure to use precious removal to take it out. I'm talking about Mirror force or Dimensional prison, which is a card that your opponent would rather have used on a big beatstick, especially if you have this card and a high attack monster on the field. Your opponent can either kill your big monster and discard a card, or take out reaper and take a huge hit, and have to take it down next turn.

So here we have, a monster that does not want to leave the field and it can completely wreck your opponent's hand.

The downside is that it's destroyed when targeted. Most of the time, cards that target destroy anyway so it's not really a problem. Since spirit reaper's effect activates after the card has resolved, it is not destroyed when it has been flipped face down by Book of Moon. However, if you are planning on bringing it back from the graveyard with Limit reverse or Call of the Haunted, forget about it.

The reason why i'm really reviewing this card is because of its new Semi-Limited status. With 2 in your deck, your opponent will be hard pressed to get an attack through without plenty of monster removal. And combined with cards like Ultimate Offering and monster reborn, 2 spirit reapers attacking directly can deplete your opponent's resources instantly, and 600 damage is not too shabby at all.

I have an urge to make a new decklist on my channel utilising spirit reaper to its full potential. Maybe with Gadgets and 3 Smashing/Fissure to keep their field open. The possibilities are endless. Spirit Reaper format is now, duelists.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Malefic Cyber End Dragon

Hey people. For today i want to review a Malefic card. It's arguably the best malefic card made, definitely in my opinion anyway.

Bring on Malefic Cyber End Dragon!!!

Zane would be too good if he had this...

This 4000 attack beatstick follows suit with all of his evil friends. It cannot be normal summoned or set and it cannot be special summoned except by sending its good half (in this case, a normal cyber end dragon) from your extra deck to the graveyard. There can only be one Malefic on the field at once and other monsters you control cannot attack. Also, if there is no field spell on the field, destroy this card.

That's alot of nonsense on a card. But if you run field spells, you can now run a powerhouse that can be special summoned when you need it. 4000 attack is a rediculous amount of attack power. Combine it with limiter removal and that's game.

It's so powerful that you will rarely ever have a reason to put it into defence position. It's mighty attack allows it to be chained onto Deck Devastation Virus to wipe your opponent's hand clear of weak monsters. But why are Malefic monsters getting good?

Simply, its the power of the newly unlimited Skill Drain. It allows you to negate the effects of all the monsters on the field. For Malefic monsters, that means:

- You don't need a field spell on the field to keep it alive.
- You can summon multiple Malefic monsters at once, and you can summon yours in a mirror match if your opponent has a Malefic on the field
- Best of all, you can attack with all of your Malefic monsters, and all of your non-malefic monsters!

This card is the best because you have to send Cyber End Dragon from your Extra Deck to the Graveyard. That means that you dont need to put unnecessary monsters in your main deck to bring this beast out. It also has Attack points on par with Malefic Rainbow Dragon, but you need to run a Rainbow Dragon in your deck to use that.

I hope to see someone take a Malefic deck to the top in YCS Charlotte, because they really are a force to be reckoned with!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Trishula of the Ice Barrier

With Hidden Arsenal 4 coming to the TCG in about a month, players are looking forward to one of the, if not the, most powerful synchro monsters ever created. It will literally change the game as we know it (Why do Ice Barriers get all the best synchros??)

Anyway, todays card is the almighty Trishula of the Ice Barrier

Scoop.

This level 9 synchro monster has 2700 attack and 2000 defence. Thats not great for a level 9, but this card requires a generic tuner and generic non-tuners so theres no real problem about that. Its a water type, which follows suit with all of the Ice Barrier monsters. The real problem with this card is its badass broken effect:

When this card is Synchro summoned, you can remove from play one card from your opponent's field, hand and graveyard (The card in hand is chosen at random).

There are many cards that remove stuff. Caius removes, Chaos Sorcerer removes, Bottomless removes etc etc. But this card is broken simply because there is no meta deck that is safe from its effect. No deck likes to have the cards in their hand removed, so thats painful enough already. But wait, a card in your graveyard is going too. That could be your precious Vayu or Necro Guardna or the 3rd dark in the grave you needed to summon dark armed dragon. Then it removes a threat from the field.

This card is one of those cards that requires next to no strategy to use at all. since you -2 upon summon and then remove 3 cards, its a +1 overall.

I really hope this card gets limited/banned soon. Some decks can synchro spam this card multiple times, making that 2700 attack painful. Usually a powerful card has its base attack reduced to compensate for the effect, like Mist Wurm or Stardust Dragon. But this card is just a badass that everyone will learn to hate very quickly.

This card can be stopped by Solemn Warning or Divine Wrath. With Divine Wrath, discarding a card is a small price to pay to stop trishula's potent/broke effect. Konami released an anti-trishula card in Starstrike Blast called Mirror of the Ice Barrier, but it really does not do enough and the player summoning trishula can easily choose not to remove anything.

This card is also broken because even if it gets summoned onto an empty field, it hurts you. If you play decks that like to remove from play cards, then trishula is not so bad.

Upon release, this card will be at three. That means many decks (Fish decks and Debris plants) will break this card and summon 3 on the field on the first turn if they can. Hopefully Konami will come to their senses and limit this beast.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Tiki Curse & Tiki Soul

Today im reviewing two cards since they have been designed to work with eachother as well as all cards of that nature. Trap monsters have never really been a scary bunch to face since they didn't possess any effects. They were however, a good away to increase your field presence and get that tribute fodder for a monarch or other tribute monsters. Storm of Ragnarok introduced two new Trap monsters to the game..

Called Tiki Curse & Tiki Soul.

All trap monsters have similar text: Special summon this card and it is treated as an effect monster and it gains stats stated on the card. These two each have a good effect that makes trap monsters so much better.

Lets start with Tiki Curse. While this card is treated as a monster, any other trap monster that battles your opponent's monster, that monster is destroyed after damage calculation. While that ensures you destroy your opponent's monster, you will probably have to destroy your own. This card works well against cards that cannot be destroyed in battle like the newly semi-limited spirit reaper.

The better card is Tiki Soul in my opinion. It hits the field with 1000/1800 (So special summon it in defence mode) and when another trap monster you control is destroyed (battle or effect), you can set the monster back down instead of sending it to the graveyard. This is a good way to keep monsters on the field.

While both are on the field, if your opponent attacks Soul, it destroys itself after attacking. If it attacks Curse, it is reset back on the field.

Now, Tiki soul works very well with Zoma the Spirit. This trap monster allows you to deal damage to your opponent equal to the attack of the monster that destroyed it. Tiki Soul's effect should allow you to reset Zoma the Spirit back on the field after the effect damage has been dealt (If you want to understand the chain, Zoma the Spirit's effect is mandatory while Tiki Soul's effect is optional. Zoma's effect activates first because of this and Tiki soul's effect is chain link 2).

With the addition of these two, trap monster now have more ways to hurt your opponent. since you can special summon multiple at once, it is a fast strategy. If you pull these any time soon, don't be so quick to throw them away!

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Vylon Disigma

Wow. It's almost been a week since i last posted. I apologise to all my readers who come on a daily basis, i had a busy weekend.

Anyway, in the distant future, we will have Exceed monsters. They are quite honestly, a walk in the park to summon on most occasions. I would go over how they are summoned, but just search exceed summon on google and you will get a clear explanation.

Today's Review is the only half-decent Exceed monster ive seen so far. Yuma's ace synchro is far from good, but this one is actually playable. Some say its the new Goyo Guardian, but thats far from the truth.

Introducing: Vylon Disigma

GoyoTastor!

This Fairy type is a Rank 4 and requires 3 level 4 monsters to summon it. That is incredibly easy to accomplish. I'm talking Wulf, Lightsworn beast, Batteryman AAA (Or as Kevin Tewart calls it, Batteryman Dance party), Or any level 4 machine type with less than 500 attack and machine duplication.

It's got 2500 attack, which seems standard for a beater these days. Machina fortress, Stardust dragon and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi en are good examples of why 2500 is the magical number. It's got 2100 defence, which isnt too bad if you need to go on the defensive. With this monsters effect, thats not a bad idea at all:

Once per turn, you can remove 1 of this card's exceed materials (You should have 3 under disigma when its summoned) to select one face-up attack position monster your opponent controls and equip it to this card. When this card battles, if the opposing monster has an attribute that matches the attribute of a monster equiped to Disigma, then you can destroy that monster at the start of the damage step.

Wow. This is Goyo Guardian and Catastor's Child, and He's proof that evolution really does pay off. Upon summon, this card is a -2 (you need 3 monsters to summon it, and 1 monster goes in their place) but every time you use its goyo effect, you +2 (You get a monster, they lose that monster). Thats impressive.

So if you nab their DARK monster and attack their DARK monster, their monster is immediately destroyed. So even if that mediocre 2500 attack can't get over their beatstick, the effect should take care of them.

While thats all good, there are 2 problems i can see with this card:
- The monsters are equipped: That does NOT mean the same as overlaid. The equipped monster will reside in your spell and trap card zone, so you cannot use them for the goyo effect. You cannot attack with those monsters or use their effects either. If you take their Shi en, you cannot negate spells and traps. But if you could, this card would be absolutely outright broken.
- You cant take their face down cards. Which is good, but that means cards like Ryko completely destroy it.

This card works really well against decks that rely on one attribute, like Blackwings, but not Six Samurai, which is a shame. But if you manage to nab 2-3 monsters of different attributes, then your opponent will find it hard to take Disigma down, and the monster reborn in their hand is sitting there with nothing to resurrect.

This card should be released in Hidden arsenal 6 (I think. By my logic, Hidden arsenal 5 will have Duel terminals 9 and 10, so Hidden arsenal 6 should have 11 and 12), which will probably come out around this time next year (SADFACE :( ). Nevermind eh? At least there is something to look forward to in all of this ZEXAL bull****.

Yu-Gi-Oh Card Review: Token Sundae

Its time for a fun review. Usually i review cards with the intention of raising their awareness or giving tips that the readers might not have noticed before. But todays card, Token Sundae, is purely because it made me LOL when i saw it.

Goblins eating Lamb tokens. Now I've seen everything...

This spell card has a simple effect, but one of those effects that make you think of all the possibilities with this card. You can destroy all your tokens and destroy cards on the field up to the number of tokens destroyed.

Now, tokens are summoned by many card effects. There are some metagame cards that use tokens, like Gorz the emissary of darkness or Dandylion, but i doubt you want to use those tokens for a card like this.

But there are other cards that summon many tokens. Cosmic compass, a monster from Storm of Ragnarok, lets you summon up to 4 tokens depending on the number of monsters your opponent controls. You can use Token Sundae and destroy up to 4 cards on your opponent's field (those monsters), and it only cost you 2 cards.

Other useful cards that summon tokens are Scapegoat (The very same ones in the artwork of this card!) and Phantom Skyblaster, which might see play depending on the rulings of exceed monsters.

But the card is situational. While you can have 20 monsters that summon tokens, sometimes you just wont have them on the field. There might be hope however: You can use 3 Token sundae, 3 Kuriboh, 2-3 Flute of summoning kuriboh and 3 detonate to have a consistent combo that lets you destroy many cards. Add some high attack monsters like Machine emporer wisel (which will be a secret rare in Extreme Victory) and you have a potent win condition that your opponent will have a hard time coming back from.